Photo Credit Our Days Photo + Film (@ourdaysphotoandfilm)
Tanja Babich anchors ABC 7 Chicago's Eyewitness News in the Morning. The Emmy Award-winning anchor is the Canadian-born daughter to immigrant parents from Chile and Serbia, and came to the U.S. as a first-generation college student. She proudly spoke about her heritage and living the "American Dream" when she became a United States citizen in April 2013. Tanja is fluent in French and speaks conversational Spanish and Serbian. She has also enjoyed lending her voice to narrate the stories of exceptional women in history on two episodes of the Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls podcast.
My mother is the kind of woman who will pull over in a blizzard and offer a kid walking to school a ride. She mothers everyone. I suppose that’s why my friends all called her 'Mama Lisa' when I was growing up. She taught me to love, hard.
With respect to my professional life, like a lot of children of immigrants (my mom is from Chile, my dad is from Serbia), I had a responsibility to make the most out of my parents’ sacrifice. So, I’ve always had lofty ambitions. The added push to take my career to the next level came when I became a single mother to my two oldest daughters when they were six months and two years old, respectively. I was anchoring a morning show in a small market in upstate New York and wasn’t making enough money to support a family on my own. So, I hired an agent and interviewed all over the country, ultimately landing my job here at ABC 7 Chicago.
The question I have asked myself at every major junction in my life has been, “What kind of example do you want to set for your girls?” The answer, invariably, is one who can do hard things, even if they scare her. That’s how I moved my kids halfway across the country to a city where we had no family and no friends. It’s also how I survived 9.4 Gs in an F-16 when given the opportunity to fly with the Air Force Thunderbirds. I don’t need for my daughters to think that I am fearless. I want for them to know that I can do anything, even if I’m afraid.
Adelaide (11), Lorelei (10) and Josephine (3)
Make up by Alx Galasinao (@artistalx1)